“Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic,” Cohen writes. Some group or cultural trend “emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions.”[18]
